T20 World Cup 2024: Australia vs Bangladesh Best Bets

The Super Eight phase of the 2024 T20 World Cup resumes on Friday morning with a match between Australia and Bangladesh at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua and Barbuda. We’ve prepared for the best bets to take for this game.

Venue: Sir Vivian Richards Stadium

Betting Preview

Australia have dominated Bangladesh in major ICC events, winning all five T20 World Cup clashes and each of their four ODI World Cup encounters. Their closest wins include a tight three-wicket victory in 2016 and a 27-run win in the Caribbean in 2010.

Currently, Australia are unbeaten, though they faced challenges against Oman, only managing a 39-run victory, and narrowly edged out Scotland thanks to key performances from Travis Head, Marcus Stoinis, and Tim David. They comfortably defeated Namibia and surpassed 200 runs for the first time in this tournament against England, a feat later matched by Sri Lanka and the West Indies in Saint Lucia.

Bangladesh showed resilience in their group matches, narrowly losing to South Africa and overcoming collapses to defeat Sri Lanka. Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto’s poor form is a concern, having struggled against off-spin in the powerplay. Glenn Maxwell could exploit this weakness for Australia.

Bangladesh narrowly defeated both the Netherlands and Nepal and will need to elevate their game to compete with tournament favourites Australia. This is their second Super Eight appearance in a T20 World Cup, having last achieved this in 2007. With three wins in this tournament, they’ve already set new records, potentially marking a memorable end to Shakib Al Hasan’s T20 World Cup career.

While Bangladesh have done very well to this point, they have yet to face any side that has looked as good as Australia in this tournament. The Baggy Greens have barely broken a sweat so far and they will likely win this match fairly comfortably.

Key Battle: Australian strike bowler Josh Hazlewood has a tournament economy rate of only 5.58rpo coming into this game. His tally of ten wickets against Bangladesh is his third-most against any single nation, and he has the wood over one of Bangladesh’s biggest weapons with 2/14 from 15 balls bowled to talismanic veteran Shakib Al Hasan.

Shakib played a key role in victories against Nepal (with 17 and 2/9) and the Netherlands, where he anchored the innings with an unbeaten 64. He is also one dismissal shy of becoming the first man to claim 50 wickets in T20 World Cups, having participated in every edition of the tournament since 2007. Against Australia in T20WCs, he has impressive averages of 35 with the bat and 20.4 with the ball.

Prediction: Australia to win at 1.13.

Key Stats

The average first innings score at this venue prior to the Super 8s stage was just 128, though for teams that win batting first, it was nearly 150.

The first four 2024 T20WC games in North Sound produced an average run rate of 8.14 (162 runs per 20 overs).

Australia’s bowlers conceded the most sixes (27) in the first group stage of all 20 teams.

Bangladesh’s opening stand was worth fewer than ten runs in all four of their games at this World Cup, whilst the Head-Warner partnership averaged 28 runs.

Australia conceded the most powerplay runs in four of the last six H2Hs, but in the first group stage of this tournament, their powerplay run rate of 9.34rpo was second only to England’s 10.03rpo.

Shakib Al Hasan has dismissed David Warner twice in T20Is for just 19 runs conceded.

Similarly, Adam Zampa’s eight balls to Litton Das earned him figures of 2-2.

Best Bets

Best Bet: Travis Head to score over 26.5 at 1.90.

Value Bet: Josh Hazlewood to be Australia’s top bowler at 4.50.

BET Contributor

Tims is a CSA accreditated freelance cricket writer who also does cricket commentary for Guerilla Cricket SA and founder of the Full Quota Podcast.